Twinkle and Chubbins

By: L. Frank Baum

Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert

Twinkle and Chubbins is a collection of short children's stories written by L. Frank Baum, but published under the pen name Laura Bancroft. The stories included in the collection are: "Mr. Woodchuck", "Bandit Jim Crow", "Prairie-Dog Town", "Prince Mud-Turtle", "Twinkle's Enchantment", and "Sugar-Loaf Mountain".

"Mr. Woodchuck" involves Twinkle discovering the cruelty of animal traps, which her father has set in order to catch a woodchuck living on their property. She has a dream involving the woodchuck's family who show her the truth of what her father is doing.

"Bandit Jim Crow" tells the story of a baby crow that Twinkle takes in as a a pet that turns out to be a mean and villainous bird. After he is nursed back to health, he begins tormenting all the birds in the area until Policeman Bluejay has to intervene.

"Prairie-Dog Town" sees Twinkle and her friend Chubbins go on a magical adventure into the underground village of the prairie dogs, once they have been shrunken down to the same size as the dogs themselves!

In "Prince Mud-Turtle", Twinkle discovers a strangely-colored turtle that she brings back home with her. Twinkle then learns that the turtle is actually a prince who has been turned into a turtle by an evil giant and goes on an adventure to restore the turtle-prince to his human form.

"Twinkle's Enchantment" involves Twinkle's adventure when she enters into a gulch to pick berries and meets several proverb-based creatures, such as a Rolling Stone That Gathers No Moss and the Birds of One Feather, among others.

"Sugar-Loaf Mountain" follows the adventure that Twinkle and Chubbins go on after finding a trap door that leads them to Sugar-Loaf Mountain. Sugar-Loaf Mountain, as they discover, is populated by people made of sugar. They meet the king, who takes them around the city to explore and meet the townspeople.

L. Frank Baum (1856-1919), an American writer, journalist, and script writer, is most famously known for his children's books. Baum attended school for theater and later managed an opera house where he wrote plays as well as acted in them. He had many successes and accomplishments, but his greatest success is The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

Public Domain (P)2013 Ennunciation LLC

"Nature Fairytales" by author of The Wizard of Oz

A collection of L. Frank Baum's "The Twinkle Tales", six short stories from 1905 about a little girl named Twinkle, who visits various animals in nature and/or fairyland. A little boy named Chubbins accompanies her in 2 of the stories.

Chapter 1 - Mr. Woodchuck
Chapter 9 - Bandit Jim Crow
Chapter 17 - Prairie Dog Town
Chapter 25 - Prince Mud-turtle
Chapter 33 - Twinkle's Enchantment
Chapter 40 - Sugar Loaf Mountain

The first three stories are in nature settings with little magic other than animals talking to Twinkle and acting like humans. "Prince Mud-turtle" is more of a traditional fairy tale, with Twinkle saving a prince who was enchanted by an evil giant. "Twinkle's Enchantment" is non-stop puns, with literal castles in the air and weasels who go pop. "Sugar Loaf Mountain" has Twinkle and Chubbins finding a hidden city inside a mountain, where everything and everyone is made of sugar. Jarringly, the white sugar people are superior to the brown sugar people. L. Frank Baum was not known to be racist, but the attitudes of his time certainly leaked through.

The best-selling individual book back in 1905 was Bandit Jim Crow. He is a very bad bird who steals other birds' eggs and kills chicks, then meets his just reward in a morality play twist at the end. It's a rather harsh story, but perhaps Edwardian children, who were expected to be very well-behaved, liked what a rebel Jim Crow was. At any rate, the popularity of the story led to a full-length sequel featuring Jim Crow's nemesis, Policeman Bluejay. It was later titled "Babes in Birdland" because Twinkle and Chubbins return in the book, and are transformed into little birds with human heads. The book is available from Audible under the original title, "Policeman Bluejay".